


First Step

by Severina



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse, post season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 02:58:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/605051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He bets it’d smell like all the things they’ve lost, all the things they can’t do any more in their relentless rush across the countryside in search of a safe place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Step

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's tamingthemuse community, for the prompt "perfume". I categorized this as "Daryl/Carol" even though Carol doesn't actually appear... I supposed it's "pre-Daryl/Carol."
> 
> * * *

The bell over the door still chimes when he pushes it open. Daryl freezes in the entranceway, his eyes trying to track everywhere at once and his nose twitching involuntarily at the smell. Not the reek of walkers, thank fucking Christ. There is the choking throat-clenching odor of food long decayed, but it takes him a moment to identify the second, more powerful scent. His mind flashes incongruously on his Aunt Edith and his mother’s palm warm on the small of his back, pushing him toward the hateful old bag. Then it comes to him – the store is redolent with the cloying, overly sweet smell of perfume.

When he takes his first hesitant step into the store, his boot crunches on broken glass.

He scans the area quickly before lowering the bow. He raises his hand and beckons the rest of the group forward. “Looks clear,” he tells Rick quietly.

Rick clamps a hand on his shoulder and nods before turning to the others. “Looks clear,” Rick repeats, “but keep your eyes open. Remember, we’re here for essential items only. Food, water, medical supplies.”

Daryl steps aside as they file in, Glenn and Maggie already heading toward the small, cramped pharmaceutical counter in the back; Beth clutching her knife in a sweaty palm and looking about with wide, scared blue eyes. Her palm comes up to cover her mouth as she gags on the nauseating odor. 

Rick notices. He always notices.

“You sure you wanna do this?” Rick asks, laying a hand on her elbow. “You can stand guard outside...”

“I’m fine,” Beth insists. 

“She’s fine,” Daryl repeats firmly. 

Daryl nods when she turns grateful eyes his way, turns to take in the rest of the store. Damn girl argued for three days about being included on a supply run. He kept himself out of it, but he knew she was right. She’s gotta get her cherry broke sometime – and the best time is when him and Rick are there to keep an eye on her.

He waits until he hears her heading off toward the food aisle before turning back to Rick, squinting against the sunlight filtering through the dirty windows and gesturing to the mess with one hand. “We ain’t gonna find much,” he says. “Somebody went through and wrecked the whole place. Looks like they broke every damn bottle on the shelves. Deliberate.”

Rick nods. “Might’ve been looters, when the whole thing first went down.”

“Idiots,” Daryl offers. 

He steps away from Rick, wincing internally every time his boots crunch over more of the broken glass that is strewn throughout the store, sliding through a spot on the faded tile that’s still slick and oily despite the passage of time. He hears Beth exclaim over something she’s found on one of the shelves; Rick’s voice, softer, reminding her to keep her voice down. He offers up a quick mental prayer for Rick before checking the signage and heading quickly to the ‘health and beauty’ section. The soles of his boots stick in the spilled pools of nail polish and bubble bath that litter the aisles and though he’s not surprised to find the shelves empty of anything like band-aids or ibuprofen, he still finds his shoulders slumping dejectedly.

“Motherfuckers,” he says under his breath.

He’s turning to head over to the small tools section when the bottle behind the counter catches his eye.

That the bottle is still in one piece is rare enough, but he also vaguely recognizes it as one of those fancy perfumes, the kind that would’ve cost about three month’s salary if he ever wanted to buy it for his girl. He never had occasion to smell it, but he bets it smells like… well, like relaxing in a meadow without a care in the world. Maybe like tipping back your head and watching the clouds skate across the sky, if something like that had a smell. He bets it’d smell like all the things they’ve lost, all the things they can’t do any more in their relentless rush across the countryside in search of a safe place. 

He bets Carol would like it.

He imagines the way her lips would turn up in a slow smile as he gives it to her. Almost feels her warm, soft fingers touch his as he presses it into her palm. Envisions her dabbing it lightly onto the skin of her neck, teasingly telling him to lean in and smell the scent of it on her flesh. 

He draws in a shaking breath. 

_Essential items only_ , he hears Rick’s voice repeat on a loop in his head.

He looks around surreptitiously before reaching out with one finger to caress the fluted container. He lifts it, and it seems like it almost disappears in his palm. It’s so small and delicate, but the glass is thick. It’s stronger than it seems.

Yeah. Carol will love it.

He takes another breath before slipping it carefully into his pocket.


End file.
